Wednesday, 13 March 2013

The Mapesbury Estate Conservation Area

The Mapesbury Estate area in North London has Walm Lane and Chichele Road framing both sides of it. In the month of December in the year 1962, Mapesbury Estate was designated a conservation area.

A short distance from central London, Mapesbury Estate is an area that has a lot of history associated with it. Mapesbury Estate was built around Mapesbury House, the houses constructed between 1870 - 1885, and its history made it worthy enough to be designated a conservation area.

The first conservation areas were established in 1967. There have been a total of over 8 thousand areas that have been named conservation areas. What makes each one of these 8 thousand areas special is the fact that there is something historical about them.

The local council or the National Heritage organisation can ask the government to make the final decision as to whether or not a certain area is a conservation area. What determines whether or not a particular place can become a conservation area is how much historical significance that area has had. Some of the places that have been named historical include houses, towns, mining villages, and fishing villages.

Any property where any kind of history took place has to be treated with in a very special way. To oversee conservation areas, the local council makes sure that people who live in these areas have to take care of the property. Anything a person wants to do to their property within such an area has to check with the council and obtain permission.

Any work that is done to a historical property might change the value of the history or accidentally do something to ruin it. The local borough council has to find out exactly what the person living on the conservation area wants to do. If a person has any kind of questions about what exactly they can do to their property they need to contact the council.

People may not believe it, but a conservation area might not be just the house. Within a designated conservation area this may also include the house, the property, and the yard. The smallest things can affect the value, like taking care of the trees on the property. Trees are an important part of any yard, even more so if that tree is trimmed or if the owner wants to remove it. A person has to speak to the Borough Council just to be on the safe side and to maintain the historical value of the conservation area.

The areas that have been designated as conservation areas are quite valuable. A survey conducted by the London School of Economics involving conservation area residents found that people prefer to live in the conservation area not for the monetary value of the property, but because of the value of the history that took place there.